New legislative lines stuck on a new snag

Action on panel's modified district boundaries delayed by debate on the process

By Jimmy Vielkind

Published 10:49 pm, Sunday, March 4, 2012

ALBANY — New sets of state legislative boundaries are being held up as lawmakers try to reach agreement on changes to the process.

The state task force charged with drawing the new lines based on new census data, LATFOR, released draft maps for new districts last month. It then held a round of public hearings and its partisan halves — the task force is jointly controlled by Democrats who dominate the Assembly and Republicans who hold a bare majority in the Senate — have tweaked their respective lines.

They could be released as early as Monday, according to Scott Reif, a spokesman for Senate Republicans. Albany Assemblyman Jack McEneny, LATFOR's Democratic co-chair, said the Assembly lines are ready to go, and are now in the hands of bill drafters who are turning them into legislation.

"The lines went in on Monday from both sides. As far as I know they were there all week ... Nobody has told me they've printed anything," McEneny said.

But Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who denounced LATFOR's first draft of lines as "hyper-political," is wielding the threat of a gubernatorial veto to make lawmakers agree to a new law and changes to the State Constitution that would rip the map-making pen from legislators themselves.

Assembly Democrats outlined a draft package of possible changes last week, the Times Union reported Thursday, but the new system still allows for final revisions by legislators — something that has left some good-government advocates uneasy.

A Cuomo administration source said Sunday that there was no overall agreement, and as such, "if they are drafting now then they are drafting for a veto."

On Friday, Cuomo did not deny the Times Union's report but said during a radio interview, "Where we are is if, if, if."

Sources familiar with LATFOR's new drafts said they would keep a 63rd Senate seat stretching west and south of the Capital Region, and would uncouple several incumbent New York City Democrats who had been combined into the same districts. Two, Sens. Tony Avella and Toby Ann Stavisky, will remain combined as a result of a newly drafted majority-Asian district, one of the sources said.

Another source said there were only minor changes to the Assembly lines, including some in New York City that responded to testimony about what constituted "communities of interest."

More Information

Assemblyman Pete Lopez, R-Schoharie, said he had been told he'll be spared a primary with Assemblywoman Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, "but at this point it's all been hearsay. Of course, we're very interested in seeing the lines but I don't remain fixated on it. I've got other things to do."

Complicating things further are the actions of a federal magistrate, Roanne Mann, who accepted the argument that LATFOR reached "impasse" in drawing the state's congressional districts — the number of which will shrink from 29 to 27, and is developing her own map by March 12. A hearing will be held Monday in Brooklyn. Several sources, as well as Cuomo during his radio interview, suggested there would be no action until her plan was issued. Legislators have worked quietly to resolve their differences over the congressional lines as Mann does her work, and officials in the Bronx convened Sunday evening to discuss how the borough should be apportioned.

They denounced the unofficial plans submitted to the federal court last week, which carved the borough into seats that mostly had their roots in surrounding areas. "We believe that the natural way to empower the residents would be to place as many as possible in common districts, instead of dividing up their communities between five districts," the statement said.

Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., D-Bronx, said Sunday's meeting was to resolve conflict between officials who hoped to create a new majority-Latino district in northern Manhattan and the Bronx. The officials had struggled to reconcile that new district with preserving the majority-black district long represented by Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-Harlem. The dispute had hamstrung Assembly Democrats from negotiating an overall set of congressional maps with their Republican counterparts.